The Republican-led committee held the sudden vote on Monday morning with little notice, posting the hearing on the calendar less than an hour prior—and waiting until just 10 minutes beforehand to post a note on the hearing room door. Not surprisingly, the measure easily sailed out of the committee without any legislators present to represent Georgia's working families. The committee also voted to pass S.B. 447, which would gut unemployment insurance down to the fewest number of weeks in the country.

Democracy doesn’t happen in secret...just as S.B. 469 is designed to silence dissent, the committee leadership intentionally posted as little notice as possible to ensure that a minimum amount of opponents would be present.

But just as in Wisconsin, the attack on working families has helped mobilize a broad, energized coalition of Georgians. Working families, jobless workers, students, faith leaders, sheriffs and, yes, even the tea party are uniting together to protest the General Assembly's extreme agenda and, instead, press politicians to get to work creating jobs.

Georgia's legislative session ends this Thursday. Will Georgia's state legislators use the last remaining days of the session to stop this undemocratic bill? Will they vote to preserve unemployment insurance, the lifeline that is helping to keep Georgia's jobless families—and the local businesses they support—afloat? Or will legislators instead bow down to special interests like the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, the author of S.B. 469?

There's still time to make a difference and make your voice heard. If you're in Georgia, send e-mail messages to urge your lawmakers to vote NO on S.B. 469 and NO on S.B. 447.

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